Trump invites Obama’s half-brother to last debate with Clinton

Las Vegas, Oct 20 (IANS) US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has invited President Barack Obama’s Kenyan-born half-brother and the mother of one of the US citizens killed in the 2012 attack on the US consulate in Benghazi to the third and last debate with Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

The televised debate, which will take place on Wednesday evening in Las Vegas, will be the final face-off between the two candidates before the November 8 election, EFE news reported.

In accord with his defiant attitude in the second debate, to which he brought three women who had accused former President Bill Clinton of sexual abuse or harassment, Trump has now decided to invite Malik Obama, the President’s half-brother, who last July expressed his support for the magnate.

Trump’s campaign director, Kellyanne Conway, told MSNBC that Malik Obama “wanted” to attend the debate and that members of the mogul’s team are “happy” he was invited.

When asked at his daily press conference about that invitation, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said that the President has not spent “a lot of time” thinking about it and that no relationship exists between him and his half-brother.

Also among Trump’s invited guests are Patricia Smith, the mother of Sean Smith, a State Department IT consultant who was killed in the 2012 Benghazi attack.

That attack occurred when Clinton was Secretary of State and, during the Republican National Convention in July in Cleveland, Smith specifically blamed the Democratic candidate for her son’s death, EFE news added.

Meanwhile, Clinton has invited to the debate, among other people, Hewlett Packard CEO Meg Whitman, who since August has been one of her high-profile Republican backers.

Billionaire Mark Cuban, one of Trump’s most ferocious critics, will also be on hand at the debate, just as he was in the first face-off between the two presidential candidates.

The debate will be moderated by conservative Fox News journalist Chris Wallace and it is expected that it will be the first time the two candidates will discuss the immigration issue.

The contest will be divided into six 15-minute segments covering the national debt and social programmes, immigration, the economy, the Supreme Court, foreign policy and the candidates’ ability to be President.

While Clinton has devoted several days to preparing for the debate, Trump has said that he trusts his own instincts to see him through.

The latest voter surveys in Nevada, a state that could be key in deciding the Nov. 8 election and where Hispanics represent 27.8 per cent of the population and 17 percent of the possible voters, show that Clinton is leading Trump by 2.5 per cent.

It is expected that the TV viewing audience for this contest will be smaller than that for the second debate, when 66 million people tuned in, a figure that was lower than for the first debate, when a record 84 million people watched.